The important word is the word "good". It could also read "true", as in the saying that Jesus Christ is the "true" vine. And the important part of the picture is that the shepherd carries on his shoulder a sheep that had got lost in the stony desert of life. It had become tired, and then had lied down among the brushes in order to die. But the shepherd sought it and found it and then put it on his shoulder and carried it back to the fold.

This Stained Glass Window - and you remember that I am preaching a series on the biblical messages to which the texts and the pictures in our Stained Glass Windows point - adds to making our worship space a true, comforting and liberating one. There are not many safe spaces in our world. Our worship space needs to be one of them. And the pictures help us to make this a safe space.

As we look at that window and as we meditate on the text that presents Jesus Christ to us as the good shepherd, we are invited to realise that the best we can associate with the idea of shepherd finds it fulfilment in Christ. Here is what the most insightful commentator on the Gospel of John (Rudolf Bultmann) says:

Just as all the waters of the earth point to the one living water, and as all bread on the earth points to the one bread of life, and as all day-light points to the light of the world, just as every earthly vine is contrasted with the "true" vine, so every shepherd in the world is contrasted with the "good" shepherd. (Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John, p. 364)

So, let us ask, first of all, what is so "good" about the good shepherd. What makes this shepherd different to all other shepherds? What distinguishes this shepherd from the thief, the bandit, the stranger, and the hired hand to whom our story refers? Jesus says here:

The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away - and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. . I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

"I lay down my life for the sheep." "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Free, voluntary, self-giving love. That is the "good" about the good shepherd. Can we understand the mystery of self-giving love?

The picture shows the shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders, and thereby alludes to one of Jesus' parables (Luke 15:4-7; Matth 18:12-14; Gospel of Thomas 107). An important parable. A parable that captures the mystery of self-giving love.

It likens God's ways (the "kingdom of God") to the story of a sheep that had got lost in the wilderness. When it realised that it was lost, when tiredness took over, it just laid down to save energies and to die. Then there was rustling in the bushes, footsteps. The shepherd appears. The joy of discovery gives him the strength to put the sheep on his shoulders and carry it back to the fold.

And then the privilege, the challenge, the invitation. Who among "you" would not leave the 99 and search for the one that is lost? Who among you would not want to echo the very being of God?

So that is the first dimension of the mystery of self-giving love. It echoes who God is! It fleshes out God's will. It puts flesh to grace. It is not God's job to seek and find us and put us on God's shoulders and carry us home, as a French philosopher cynically remarked. It is God's free and voluntary decision to share God's being with us.

Another dimension of self-giving love is the realisation that love is hard work. It is costly. Have you tried to put a sheep on your shoulders after seeking it in the desert heat? But the joy of discovery carries with it its own strength. God is a burden carrier and all those who echo God in their life will experience God's empowerment. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives the increase as we risk the way of love.

But the mystery of self-giving love has an even greater depth. The third dimension is the willingness of Christ to expose himself to life threatening evil on our behalf. "I lay down my life for the sheep." This is even more than carrying our burdens. This takes away the fear of the ultimate burden of being separated from God. Of being left out there in the wilderness of life. Of having no hope when we find ourselves in the tunnels of life.

Christ is the "good" shepherd by having done for us what none of us and no shepherd in the world could do. He voluntarily spent his life to become a bridge builder between God and us. We could not do it. We needed to depend on him to do it for us.

So far, we have talked about what God has done for us. God, who is self-giving love. What does God's being say about our being? What does God have to do with our human self-understanding? How does God's being interpret and illuminate our life?

God's love is neither arbitrary, nor romantic. It has an aim. And that aim is us! God carries our burden, before we carry each others' burdens. God's downward movement constitutes our dignity. God is God, we are human. God is divine, we are sinners. God speaks, we listen. God calls, we obey. God leads, we follow.

If we recognise that Jesus Christ is not just any shepherd - and this "any" includes great names like the Patriarchs and Moses and David who have all been called "shepherds" - but that Jesus Christ is the "good", the "true" shepherd, then we want to belong to his friends. We want to believe, obey and follow, not because we have to, but because he promises to lead us to the waters of life.

This faith, this following, this obedience, has its own inherent certainty. The sheep know the voice of the good shepherd. This good shepherd is not like the selfish and corrupt leaders of whom we heard from the prophet Ezekiel: the shepherds who fed themselves, rather than their sheep. The shepherds who rule with harshness and force, and who therefore "have not strengthened the weak, . have not healed the sick, . have not bound up the injured, . have not brought back the strayed, . have not sought the lost" (Ezekiel 34:4).

The true shepherd fleshes out the very being of God:

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak,.. I will feed them with justice. (Ezekiel 34:15f.)

So in relation to God, God is the giver, we are the receivers. God speaks, we listen. God leads, we follow.

But what does this do with our modern struggle for identity? If God comes first, where does that leave us? Is it not one of the modern achievements - the so-called fruits of the enlightenment - that we have discovered and asserted ourselves? Who would want to go back to the days where the state or the church tells us what to do?

It is not as easy as that! The discovery of self was and is important. We would have no Human Rights today if the individual would not have stood up and march for freedom from institutional domination - be it the state or the church.

But having thrown off the chains of domination, having asserted our freedom, we have also made the discovery that freedom as such is not what we want. That we need each other to dance and sing and enjoy and live our freedom.

Please listen to the voice of Christ, the "good" shepherd:

I know my own and my own know me,
just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father.

By receiving God's love, our identity is not erased or violated, but we are introduced into a life giving and life-fulfilling partnership. All of life is relational. And by focussing attention on the self, by asserting and protecting our identity - which we need to do! - we sometimes forget that our identity needs the "other", and can only blossom in relation to the other.

It is therefore important to realise that God's very being is portrayed as relational, as self-giving love and as freedom in community. There is this beautiful icon of the trinity from the 15th century Russian artist Andrei Rublev. It pictures three divine figures - women in this case - who sit around the Lord's Supper table, leaning towards each other in self-giving love, without losing their own individual identity. At the centre is the cup representing the cross of Christ, symbolising the self-giving love that makes our relationships possible. So, my friends, faith in Christ does not violate our identity. Indeed: God can't violate our freedom. God is love and love can only knock and beg. It can't enslave and it can't invade. God grants safe places. But when you tune into God by opening your very being then God's love will flow into your life and lift you and give you meaning.

Such love longs to be shared. Such freedom remains open. We are not surprised, therefore, when the "good" shepherd seeks and finds and carries what was in danger of being lost, and when he gives words to this:

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
I must bring them also,
and they will listen to my voice.
So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

God's love is universal. By raising Jesus from the dead, God has begun to win back to God, what belongs to God. God is the creator of heaven and earth. God's sheepfold includes all of life. And all of life has the possibility to respond.

As the flowers stretch toward the sun, as the animals walk towards the water, so our longing is for God the mystery of life.

As you look at the picture and as you hear Jesus saying through the ages: "I am the good shepherd", remember the invitation to join the fold, and then echo God's being in seeking the lost, carry their burdens and nurse them back to the fold where in meaningful relationships they can experience freedom in community, not freedom from others, not freedom from God, but freedom with others and freedom with God.

TL:28/01/01.